Twenty thousand years had passed since the last son of
Krypton came to Earth. In his lifetime, he established a
stronghold of peace, prosperity and productivity amongst mankind, who,
in turn, took their dignity and spirit into the beckoning starways...

The Exile at the Edge of Eternity

Although the Man of Steel had long since passed away,
his courage, strength and vision lived on to inspire
all those who abhored injustice and corruption. The
Kent tradition was carried on by his remarkable
offspring, the sons and daughters of Superman. In
his honor, a constellation high at the edge of the known universe was
named after him!

As the centuries passed, generations of supermen contributed to man's
conquest of the stars!

During the millennia, their inherited powers
diminished as bloodlines crossed and recrossed with
humans! Earthmen, however, continued to evolve,
their abilities increasing to super-normal intensity!
New and fantastic technologies were developed that sent the explorers
ever deeper into the blackness of space. Their efforts, which took a
heavy toll in lives and souls, were justified when Earth's life-giving
sun flared nova and burned her tiny satellites to
cosmic ash! Man escaped with no time to spare!

For the next seven million years, man and supermen colonized the
heavens! They were propelled by time-drive thrusters, anti-grav
devices and warp-space engines. The supermen developed a series of
new powers, including the ability to transform their
body masses into pure energy!

As the space-settlers conquered myriad worlds, they took root, built
environments and raised families as their fathers had done an eternity
ago on the plains and mountains of Terra!

There was great joy and great pain, the strong, the cunning and the
daring found wealth and fame! Minstrels sang of their exploits, from
the Magellanic Cloud to Perdition's Horn! The weak, the foolish and
the fearful died of battered bodies and broken hearts. The stars did
not mourn their passing!

Politicians organized the expanding societies! Empires prospered as
alien worlds welcomed their visitors! Often boundaries were violated,
and wars were waged which leveled
planetscapes as far as the eye could see! Death was commonplace, but
man continued to prosper despite the anger, jealousy, greed and
malevolence of his brothers!

The stars did not judge their actions!

As the starmen continued to explore the heavens, they solved many
cosmic paradoxes, including the shape and perimeter
of space! Measured by the physical laws of length, breadth, height
and time, the concept of the galaxy bending back upon
itself like a moebius strip was proven and
charted.

Continuous travel along the plotted celestial lanes allowed travelers
to return to their starting point! Violating its
edges was dangerous and forbidden by universal
decree!

What lay beyond the realm of space was an
impenetrable mystery with which no being wanted to tamper! The forces
maintaining the boundary at the edges of space were of another
dimension, colonies near the borders were few, but mining
stations run by worker robots were common. One such outpost, in a
system at the high rim of the universe, had been excavating precious
ore for a thousand years before the accident
happened!

While every mining operation was equiped with an automatic
defense system designed to deter claim jumpers, this unit
erroneously identified a meteor shower as an enemy
raid, and retaliated with a barrage of atom particle
destroyers. Although some of the runaway meteors were blown
to neutrons, others continued on their course -- relentlessly tracked
by the APD missiles!

Then, somewhere near the edge of the universe, they exploded,
tearing a jagged rift in the very matrix of physical
time and space. A terrible shockwave hammered the
cosmos as reality poured through the opening, disappearing into total
oblivion, leaving only the brightness of
nothing and the deafening thunder of silence!

Suns, planets, asteroids and the awesome void between worlds vanished
into nothingness, swallowed ravenously by the vortex
as it spread with demonic speed throughout the universe. All
intelligent life watched the sweeping annihilation with incredulous
horror -- knowing their existence was doomed!

Fear drove many to suicide! The most courageous swore to die
resisting -- and called upon the brotherhood of supermen
to spearhead the cause of mankind!

The vortex continued devastating the universe, while every effort was
made to measure, define and anlayze it -- all of which ended in
failure! There was nothing to interpret... ABSOLUTE
ZERO!

Of the many theories suggested, one which described the effect like a
retaining wall in a huge dam with a hole in it seemed
most likely. If the hole were plugged, they reasoned, perhaps the
vortex could be stopped, even reversed! Only a force of ultimate
energy and density could be harnessed for the purpose!

The supermen agreed that ARCing
might unleash enough raw power to make a difference --
and revealed their technique to every remaining being in the
cosmos. Their plan was simple: to unite all life
into a cohesive hole and plug the dimensional wall.
While all civilization prepared for the action, the
supermen attempted to determine the core of the
vortex -- with no success! Then, A'dam'mkent+477SPMN, the blind poet
who sailed in the fury of the solar winds, came forward!

He claimed that by focusing his psychic vision on the
Superman constellation -- which no longer existed in
reality -- he could pinpoint the heart of the vortex! He was their
only hope for survival! Within three months, humanity
was ready, every being in the universe would convert
simultaneoulsy, converging into a billion units! The billion then
merged into a million, which coalesced into a thousand, and finally to
ten!

Every existing soul transcended its mortal condition to become a
being of inexorable energy! Then, A'dam'mkent was
the only man in the universe! A state so bizarre and
awesome, it drove him to the brink of insanity! His mind and body
were numb, tortured into madness by the sacrifice of mankind and the
great pain of his isolation! Suddenly, something
deep within his spirit compelled him to encase the ten
final conversions in capsules, and begin his journey to the
edge of the vortex!

When his ship was in position, he fired all but one
of the capsules into the churning nothingness!

The weight and immensity of A'dam'mkent's
responsibility crushed the life from his body and soul until he sank
to the ship's cold floor! He did not know how long he was there,
hovering on the razor's edge of eternity!

Suddenly the universe blazed with searing energy, and a tidal wave of
force propelled the ship backward into the solar blackness, with the
velocity of a comet, it hurtled through heavens, year
upon year, until, by coincidence, its trajectory
smashed it to pieces on a tiny uninhabited world!

The ship's protective field cushioned the crash and
saved the life of its sole occupant!

The ARC capsule buried itself deep in the heart of
the planet with its impact! A'dam'mkent lived! Time,
however, had no meaning for him -- he knew his torment would be
forever! He wandered aimlessly into the lush
paradise, always returning to the wreckage! Somehow, he had lost his
extraordinary powers as his vision had returned!

His torment was complete each night when he looked up at the ebony
sky! It was as it had been before the terrible
cataclysm, a sheltering dome dotted with a million lights! The life
ray of the capsule bored like a beacon into the
peaceful expanse above!

Had he saved the heavens to create his own personal
Hell? He shouted his agony at the
twinkling stars until his tears dampened his cheeks, clouded his
vision. What good was the universe with its great majesty and endless
freedom without other life to share the joy and pain of existence?
Then, as though in answer to his unspoken question,
there was a movement from the shimmering column of light! A figure
appeared, bathed in eternal radiance! And in her eyes, he discovered
the
future!